Help Asus ExpertWiFi EBR63 & Draytek Vigor 130

[Joe6zzz]

Hello all,  I am the have a go person.  After tinkering with the now box and making reserved up addresses for anything g that connects in the house and adding scheduling I was happy until Microsoft told me my child would be old enough to go it alone and I wouldn’t see thier search history etc.

so my new plan is to go with open dns.  I was recommended the ASUS router by a tech guy who then loaned me the Draytek as he didn’t realise that the now tv is a combined router and modem.

i have visited the Draytek site vigor-130-bridge mode and put the modem into bridge mode.

then I have turned on the asus and my phone sends me through a helpful little step by step scenario.  I have told it that I am using Now tv and dhcp but I haven’t put in any MAC addresses or dns.  I keep seeing posts about making up a user name and password with a pipe symbol but am not sure if I need to be doing that?  Isn’t that if you are using pppoe?  Wish I could post pics of the step by steps I took.  I spent 8 hours last weekend trying this before I knew about bridge mode for the router and this morning I spent a couple of hours.  I have also been looking at the Draytek page for sky/now https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/guides/sky-fibre-setup-guide#obtaining-login-details to give me clues to what I am doing but it talks about a Draytek router and dhcp option 61 and those settings are not on the ASUS step by step scenario.

Should I just give up and get someone in?  I need to understand how to do this for future.

Do I need to tell the router what dns to use? Or will it pick up the now tv server.  I just want to get it up and running before changing to open dns

Many thanks to anyone trawling through my post.

[chilli2]

Your post is a little confusing:

 " I was happy until Microsoft told me my child would be old enough to go it alone and I wouldn’t see thier search history etc. "

 Depends upon the age of the child, plus a few other factors

Are you trying to use one device as a modem, and the other as a router/wifi access point?

There are better solutions out there that will do it all, open DNS/whatever DNS you want as well as access control/scheduling blacklisting and so on as a one box solution , as for the future the future is going to be full fibre (FTTP) so if you are on FTTC from Now then you should see that as a stop gap

[Joe6zzz]

@chilli2 thanks for taking the time to reply.  I use Microsoft family safety app and Microsoft notified me that when my child turns 13 I will no longer see their searches.  My child is Autistic so is online a great deal and I rely on this feature to keep an eye on what they are searching for.  I have been recommended open dns service for the scheduling, blocking and to see what sites have been visited as as my child is computer savvy I needed to do it at router level.  I cannot do this on the now router as you cannot change the dns on it.  Also I have been waiting since November 2023 for Now to block Reddit which The tech team seem not to unable to do.

yes I am trying to use the Vigor as a modem and the ASUS as the router.
the package I am on is super fibre.  I believe I have  FTTC.

I understand that there maybe a one box solution but after being recommended the ASUS I have spent £140 on it so am stuck with it for now so I need help setting it up to work.

[chilli2]

If there is a need to use the Microsoft package, cant you change the childs date of birth, or create a new under age user?

As for connecting, you could try searching for Sky FTTC settings for the modem, as Now and Sky use a different log in system called MER or Option 61

 I use a TP link Archer VR2800 this should do everything you want, and other models /makes should also suffice  however if you are lumbered with the kit you have then it may be worth looking at the router/modem manufacturers support sites for any user /self help forums ( like this one) the settings that work for Sky option 61, and/or MER should also work for Now, however the username/password may be different, but it is still a generic username that only nedds to be the correct format.

I use this generic username/password, due to the forum software i have replaced the at (@) symbol with a * ( star)

username: abcdefgh*nowtv

password: 1234567890abcdef

[Joe6zzz]

@chilli2 thanks again for your time.  I returned the ASuS and contacted Tp link for recommendations.  They advised the VR300 or 400.  So I now have the VR400.  I cannot change child’s date of birth as it will cause daily arguments and pleading and I really do mean daily.  So I am now in the same situation with the TP link.  Off to post another question as stuck again.  Thanks for your time